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The Seattle Seahawks are playing lights-out defense this season. Just as they did in 2015. And 2014 and, in fact, all the way back to 2012.What some would call the Russell Wilson?era in Seahawks history is more aptly termed their Legion of Boom years (or some such nickname). What the Seahawks have done during the past four and a half seasons is rarer than producing consistently good quarterback play. Theyve had the most dominant defense in football over that span, ranking No. 1 or 2 in Football Outsiders DVOA metric each of the past four seasons, and No. 3 so far this season. (For traditionalists, the Seahawks also are tied with the Minnesota Vikings for the lowest average points allowed this season, 14.0 per game)What exactly have the Seahawks accomplished? And how have they done it? Lets take a closer look.First, the basics.The Seahawks have allowed by far the fewest points in the NFL since the start of the 2012 season. Theyre 21 percent better than the next-best teams and 32 percent below the NFL average.Points per game allowed, 2012-16Points are the most important measure of defensive success, but sometimes they can mask other deficiencies. So for good measure, the Seahawks also have allowed the fewest yards and first downs since the start of 2012. Opposing quarterbacks have an NFL-low 46.6 Total Quarterback Rating against them, nearly three points lower than the next-best team.The Seahawks 123 takeaways, combined with their 72 giveaways, give the team a plus-51 turnover margin, the NFLs second best since the start of the 2012 season. The New England Patriots lead with a plus-56 margin, but they join the Seahawks as high-achieving outliers. The next-best team is the Carolina Panthers at plus-27.How have the Seahawks pulled off such consistent achievement? The most obvious answer: They have a bunch of great players.Single seasons of players with plus-14 approximate value, 2012-16Check out the graphic above. Pro Football Reference measures every NFL player with an approximate value (AV) metric that uniformly attaches a number to each players season performance for the purposes of comparison. (Here is a more detailed explanation.)Lets put a strong AV season in the range of plus-14 or higher. Using that cutoff, you can see that the Seahawks have had more defensive players performing at least at that level during a single season than any other NFL team. Cornerback Richard Sherman has reached that level four times, while safety Earl Thomas and linebacker Bobby Wagner have done it twice apiece.A total of eight such performances might not seem high, until you realize that 14 teams have not had a single defensive player at that level?-- zero, nada -- over this span. So the median across the league is one, and the average is 1.6.And if you look at the 2012-15 seasons as a whole, youll find that five of the top 50 players in combined AV played for the Seahawks: Sherman, Thomas, Wagner, linebacker K.J. Wright and safety Kam Chancellor. And that doesnt even count defensive linemen Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril, who were mid-dynasty, free-agent acquisitions; they have been among the NFLs top 51 defensive players in AV since the start of the 2014 season.The Seahawks defense has done everything well since 2012. In addition to leading the league in points, yards and first downs, the Seahawks are also No. 1 in passing yards allowed, No. 2 in quarterback pressure percentage, No. 4 in rushing yards per carry and No. 6 in takeaways.But what has made them special? The Seahawks have a relatively rare but lethal weapon: the blitz.Since 2012, the Seahawks have blitzed -- a pass rush of five or more players -- on only 25 percent of opposing dropbacks. Thats the sixth-lowest percentage in the league.When they do send extra rushers, however, they get home at the best rate in football.Highest QB pressure percentage by defense when blitzingThe pressure rate in the graphic above is based on dropbacks in which the quarterback is sacked, put under duress or hit. This can be attributed both to player skill and smart playcalling from the defensive coaching staff.As a result, the Seahawks have allowed the NFLs lowest average yards per dropback when blitzing. Their performance is 20 percent better than the NFL average.Fewest yards per dropback allowed versus blitz, past five seasonsAppropriately, we should finish where we started: with points. Opponents have a far more difficult time scoring against the Seahawks blitz than they do against anyone else. Touchdowns per attempt when the Seahawks blitz is nearly 2 full percentage points lower than the next-best defense. The league average is 5.7 percent.Lowest TD percentage allowed versus blitz, past five seasonsThe Seahawks offense has slumped this season. Through seven weeks, the Seahawks?have the fifth-lowest points per game average in the league (18.5). But the Seahawks are 4-1-1 and atop the NFC West, in large part because of a defense that has picked up right where it left off.ESPN Stats & Information senior statistics analyst Jacob Nitzberg contributed to this story. Frank Clark Womens Jersey . Malkin got tangled up with Detroits Luke Glendening early in the third period and his left skate took the brunt of collision with the boards behind Pittsburghs net. Larry Johnson Jersey . Reigning world champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland opened with a 12-2 rout of Winnipegs Jennifer Jones in a battle of teams bound for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. http://www.prochiefsauthentic.com/Youth-Harrison-Butker-Elite-Jersey/ . 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Its hard to call one of the biggest clubs in the world a surprise package, but through the first two months of the season, Liverpool have been just that.Jurgen Klopps Reds will face a unique challenge on Saturday when they travel to Selhurst Park to battle Crystal Palace.Liverpool (6-2-1) are unbeaten in eight consecutive matches across all competitions and find themselves tied on points (20) with Arsenal and Manchester City for the top spot in the table, trailing only by goal difference.If theres one thing that has plagued Liverpool over the past few seasons, its been an inability to beat the teams that they should beat. Clubs like Palace (3-2-4) or West Bromwich Albion, which generally present problems to an emerging attacking juggernaut. But the mark of a potential title winning side is the ability to come away with three points in those fixtures, despite not having their best day at the office.The Reds had one of those games against Swansea City back on Oct. 1, but were able to come away with the points thanks to goals from Roberto Firmino and James Milner. Last week against West Brom, Liverpool ran out to a 2-0 lead as Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mane came through.Gareth McAuley pulled one back with nine minutes to play, making the Anfield faithful a bit nervous, but the defence held it together long enough to prevail.Liverpool also carried some momentum with it into a 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur in the EFL Cup on Tuesday. Daniel Sturridge scored a brace to help the Reds advance to the quarterfinals against Leeds United.After reaching the final last season only to be denied by Manchester City, Klopp believes his boys have some unfinished business to take care of this time around.Its not only unfinished business because we lost in the final -- you cant say that just because you were in the final last year then its your logical role to be the next winner! Klopp said. We have to do a lot for it.Now its the quarter-final. We dont dream, but well be ready again in November.Crystal Palace, meanwhile, have had an up-and-down start to their season. Alan Pardews boys failed to win each of their ffirst three matches, but followed that stretch with three consecutive wins.dddddddddddd.But since a 3-2 victory over Sunderland on Sept. 24, the Eagles have managed two goals during an 0-2-1 stretch.Palace fell 3-1 at the hands of reigning champions Leicester City. Yohan Cabaye scored for the Eagles but after the visitors trailed 3-0.Palace got off to a decent start against Leicester, but slowly faded as the match wore on and they were unable to cope with the quality of their opponent.In the first 20 minutes we had a good reaction to (the defeat against) West Ham, thats what I expected us to do, Pardew said. We all knew that after Leicesters performance at Chelsea there was going to be a response from them, so to dominate like we did (was a positive).We just let ourselves down in the final moment in that period. We only created one really clear chance, where Christian hits the angle. We should have done a little bit better, I thought, but they were good today -- Leicester. There wasnt much weakness in the team, we had to really work hard for everything in the midfield and then into their back four.Cabaye believed the score didnt tell the whole story.In some stages of the game we played well but it was disappointing to concede the goal just before halftime but I think overall the score is not a fair reflection on the way we played, he said. We did create chances to score goals but we lost the game in the end and that is the most important thing.Palace striker Christian Benteke will face his former club for the first time since Liverpool sold him to the south London outfit in the summer for a fee of ￡32 million. Benteke had nine goals and three assists in 29 league matches last season for the Reds. Hes scored three times for the Eagles in seven top-division contests this campaign.Palace have had the better of this fixture recently, winning three of the last four Premier League contests. Liverpool won the last meeting on March 6 when Benteke scored a 90th-minute winner. ' ' '